She Is Not a Witch

After Loranhil’s return, she first summoned and questioned the mayors of various rabbit-eared cities, then conducted a tour of the Tisilan Mountain Range.

Currently, the rabbit-eared tribe had 9 cities, 25 towns, and 87 villages, a significant expansion compared to 7 years ago when they were mostly struggling villages.

Moreover, with the extreme abundance of food in recent years, the rabbit-eared tribe had reproduced rapidly, growing from the initial 200,000 to nearly 500,000. Although most were children, it was foreseeable that in a few years, when this batch came of age, the labor force would greatly increase.

More importantly, these young rabbits had all received basic education, grown up with sufficient nutrition, and possessed excellent discipline. Their abilities in various aspects far surpassed those of their parents’ generation, and they would become the backbone and hope for the resurgence of the entire race.

After spending 3 months visiting each city, Loranhil formulated the next development outline for the Tisilan Mountain Range.

First was road construction and basic infrastructure development. There was a saying from her previous world, “To get rich, build roads first.”

This statement was actually very reasonable. Road construction could effectively integrate resources from various places, allowing for clearer social division of labor and greatly improving productivity. For example, some cities could specialize in farming, others in metallurgy, and others in handicraft manufacturing, and so on.

This would concentrate relevant talents, facilitate better exchange, and accelerate technological development. Moreover, specialization and concentration would bring about a significant increase in efficiency.

After road construction, the next step was urban planning. A city’s capacity often depended on its early planning; later modifications were very difficult. Wide streets, orderly housing, and smooth underground drainage systems could all improve the overall efficiency and hygiene level of a city.

Finally, there was cooperation with supernatural magical beasts. Many tasks that were difficult and inefficient for humans could be easily accomplished by magical beasts with their innate abilities.

Whether it was irrigation, mining, harvesting, or metallurgy, magical beasts in some ways took on the roles of large machinery from her memories. They were also more flexible and, understanding human nature, could communicate.

After meticulously preparing the plan, Loranhil again gathered representatives from each city to discuss and finalize various matters before finally distributing tasks.

And now, it was time for her to step out of the forest and see the outside world.

⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱⊰⋆⋅⭑⋅⋆⊱

Western Wind Kingdom, Seabuckthorn City.

Splashes of water rose from the bluestone streets as a light rain fell from the sky. On the road, one could occasionally see people hurrying under the rain, while others simply let their clothes get soaked, figuring they were already wet anyway.

A figure in a black hooded robe walked quietly in the rain. Raindrops slid off the clothes without wetting them, and two strands of silver hair peeking out from under the hood suggested it was a young girl.

She walked at a steady pace, observing the foreign customs.

Seabuckthorn City was located in the southern part of the kingdom, surrounded by low plains that produced a type of berry called sea buckthorn, from which the city got its name. After the southern Vegar gained independence, this place became an important transportation hub between the Western Wind Kingdom and the Vegar Commercial Alliance, thus becoming prosperous, with many travelers and merchant caravans.

Looking at the various inns and shops along the street, Loranhil found it all very novel. These shops sold all sorts of things that interested her: alchemy tools from Rulna, elven brews, leather goods from Gufia, clothes and jewelry in the style of the Verdant Empire, and more. The variety was rich, befitting the commercial center of the kingdom’s south.

Recently, the system had issued a new mission with a very tempting reward, forcing her to consider the age-old problem of making money.

Mission: Earn 100,000 gold coins without using any supernatural powers. (If powers are used during the process, the amount will be reset to zero and start over)

Reward: Chaos Ring Crafting Manual (Crystal grade), this ring has excellent aura concealment ability and comes with storage space.

The reward was the crafting method for this space ring. Loranhil wasn’t concerned about the aura concealment, but she very much wanted the attached storage space. No matter what one did, having this would be extremely convenient.

The reality was that spatial equipment was very rare in this world. Even during the Mercury Dynasty, there were fewer than 10 pieces, all of which were non-reproducible – once broken, they were gone forever.

Moreover, according to the description, this spatial equipment rewarded by the system could store 3000 cubic meters of items, which was enormous.

So after leaving the forest, Loranhil’s primary goal was to come to this commercial center to find a way to complete the mission.

She planned to first understand the situation before taking further action.

Looking at the current prices in the Western Wind Kingdom, 3 copper coins could buy a loaf of black bread. Two loaves were barely enough for one person’s daily consumption, but for laborers, at least four were needed to stave off hunger.

To live a bit longer, one would need to find other foods to supplement nutrition.

Converted, the purchasing power of one copper coin was about the same as 1 yuan from her previous world. And 100 copper coins = 1 silver coin, 100 silver coins = 1 gold coin.

In other words, 100,000 gold coins were equivalent to about 1 billion yuan from her previous world. The gold coins in this world were all crafted by supernatural artisans with special engravings, making them very difficult to counterfeit and thus very stable in value. So in practice, it usually took 110 silver coins to exchange for 1 gold coin. For everyday transactions, silver coins were sufficient; gold coins were mostly collected by nobles and wealthy merchants.

Summer rain came quickly and left just as fast. Soon it stopped, and pedestrians on the street increased again.

Ding dong ding dong—

A melodious wind chime sound came. The girl looked up and saw it was an elven-style cold drink shop. On the brown wooden signboard, “Flowers of Summer Leaves” was written in emerald green paint in Elvish, with beautiful curved strokes. Green vines with a few small flowers surrounded the signboard.

As summer approached and the weather gradually became hot, looking through the glass windows, there were quite a few people inside. Loranhil was quite curious – did this world have ice cream too?

She pushed open the door and entered. A cool breeze of air conditioning greeted her, dispelling the stuffiness on her clothes.

“Welcome~” A maid in black and white smiled as she approached.

The black short skirt and over-knee socks just formed an absolute territory, with the garter at the top of the silk stockings slightly tightening, creating a small fold of flesh, giving the maid outfit a certain inexplicable sensuality.

It seems the owner of this shop is also a formidable person, the silver-haired girl thought, then found an empty table and sat down.

“What would you like to order?” A chestnut-haired maid walked over and handed the girl a menu.

“I’ll have an ice milk cake and a chilled raspberry juice.”

She hadn’t expected to eat ice cream after coming to this world. Although the names on the menu were different, looking at what other customers were enjoying, it was actually ice cream, some even topped with strawberries and cherries.

“Very well, please wait a moment.”

Loranhil sat quietly at the table waiting, taking the opportunity to observe the shop.

Green vines twined around the ceiling, with some hanging baskets in between containing ice cubes. These ice cubes emitted cold air, cooling the room and making the environment more comfortable.

As Loranhil was observing, the shop door was pushed open again, and two richly dressed people entered.

The leader was a middle-aged man wearing a silk robe imported from the Golden Oriole Dynasty and a round hat. His face had some wrinkles, but he was well-maintained, likely a wealthy merchant. The nobles of the Western Wind Kingdom didn’t wear round hats; this was the style of Vegar merchants.

Behind him was a young girl in a blue silk dress. She had golden hair and was beautiful, but her behavior and demeanor were very casual, unlike a young lady from a wealthy family.

The young girl looked around, seeing the somewhat crowded shop, and revealed a trace of disgust on her face, covering her nose and mouth with a fan.

“Father, can we have all these people sent out? It’s so crowded.”